Truncation without truncation

Abstract

In this paper I explore a long-standing issue in Russian linguistics, viz. the relationship between the so-called One-Stem System (Jakobson 1948) and the more traditional Two-Stem System from the perspective of the Usage- Based Model (Langacker 1991, 1999; Kumashiro 2000). My aim is to show that this model facilitates a synthesis between the two systems for the description of Russian conjugation. After a brief presentation of the form-based generalizations of the One-Stem system in section 1, I show that these generalizations do not require abstract underlying representations and procedural rules, but can be captured by means of static schemas in the Usage-Based Model (section 2). In section 3 it is argued that a purely form-based analysis is incomplete, but that the schemas can be extended so as to accommodate the meaning-based generalizations implicit in the Two-Stem System. Since the Usage-Based Model captures the generalizations inherent in both systems, it is concluded in section 4 that the Usage-Based Model provides a synthesis of the two systems, which have often been considered antagonistic.